AHHHHHHHH!!!!! This is almost exactly like the bike I had as a little girl. But I had a sparkly blue seat and no red, white and blue things on the wheels. Oh, and I think the wheels were blue too. But the main bike color and basket are the same. If I had a ton of money to throw around on frivolous things I’d buy this $80 doll bike and put it on a shelf in my craft room some day. So cute!
- We had free passes to see a preview of Shutter Island last night. It was pretty good. The people watching was pretty good too, since the theater was inside the loop and not out in preppy Suburbia. I had my first real life sighting of the stereotypical hipster guy wearing skinny jeans and eyeglasses bigger than his face, which contrasted nicely with the pre-teen boy sized Members Only jacket he was wearing. Seriously? The sleeves barely made it to mid forearm.
- During hard economic times, occasionally I’ll see articles or news segments about bartering for goods and services. I’ve never done it, but I might have to look into it after checking out Knock Off Wood’s blog. Holy Crap, people!!!! It makes me want to go to Home Depot and buy some lumber. I’m not sure how far I’d get since the only tools I own are a Dremel and a jigsaw. On the plus side, I’ve seen just about every episode of This Old House ever made, and many episodes of New Yankee Workshop. Unfortunately, I’m a klutz and would probably cut off my hand. And my husband has zero interest. So….. will trade photography and sewing skills for a few knock-off Pottery Barn Kids and Land of Nod pieces.
- We went to Costco today to stock up. I love Costco. I picked up two Hanna Andersson dresses for Daphne, $13.99 a piece. One dress was even something that I wanted to buy her last year and wasn’t able to. Score!! Especially since they were probably $30+ retail. The HA pieces I’ve bought for Daphne over the last two years still look brand new, even though I’ve washed some of them 100 times. This tunic dress/top, in particular, has had everything from chocolate milk to spaghetti sauce spilled on it, and was worn constantly last year (and even some this year) and still looks new.
So YAY for cheap Hannas!
- I think I need to work on my amigurumi skills, because my nephew Oliver needs a Star Wars Amigurumi set:
- I learned this week that apparently it’s crazy to carry 11 tubes of lipstick around in your purse. You mean, everyone doesn’t do that? We had one of those mixer games before my Wednesday morning mom’s group and you got points for a bunch of random things in your purse. Everyone thought my lipstick collection was hilarious. All MAC, and all different shades- berries, pinks, bronzes, peaches. Cause you never know what you’ll need, right? Is that really crazy?
- Daphne has been crazy fussy this week. I have no idea what is going on. Here’s one of her rare smiles today:
While I was on Twitter tonight I noticed someone tweeted that tourists frequently ask the front desk people at the Alamo why it was built in the middle of downtown San Antonio. Uh, what?!! Setting aside that dumb question, I’ll admit I was tempted to tweet back “At least the question isn’t, Where’s the basement?!”
Do you think anyone still asks to see the basement of the Alamo? At least anyone under the age of 30? Do any of you know what I’m talking about? Hahaha.. I know a few of you do. For those of you who don’t, it’s a reference to Pee-wee Herman’s first movie, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. Here’s the clip:
I actually love Pee-wee. (Why don’t you marry him?) Not so much his movies (I admit I liked them as a young teen), but his early 80’s stage show with the Groundlings was hilarious! You can YouTube some clips if you are interested. If I was anywhere near Los Angeles, I would have gone to see his new stage show. Funny, funny.
And something else that is funny, well, more sad/funny… I still can’t say the word adobe without thinking of Jan Hooks.
Last week I did a mini-refashion of my own. Remember this simple sundress from last summer?
This dress was slightly too small from day one. That’s what happens when your toddler won’t stand still to be properly measured and you are sewing while she’s asleep. But she always got compliments on it. Strangers at the mall would come up to me and ask where I bought her dress.
I didn’t want to just pack it away, so I took the remaining yardage, cut the skirt off the old dress and turned it into a Matilda Jane style halter.
Not the greatest pictures, but you get the idea. I’m just thrilled that it turned out exactly as I’d hoped. I’m 50/50 with drafting my own patterns for Daphne’s clothes. It could work, or be a complete disaster. Luckily, this works and I saved my measurements and the bodice pattern I drafted to make another.
Next thing you know, I’ll be ripping down the drapes for play clothes, Von Trapp children style.
So you remember how I was DREADING the whole potty training thing? I kept putting it off, even though Daphne would occasionally ask to use the potty and go without any problems. I wasn’t sure she was ready. Or, more accurately, I wasn’t ready. Getting Daphne to sleep and eat has always been a fight, why would potty training be any different?
After a rocky first three days, mainly due to us both being really sick & crabby the week I started, Daphne has now been accident free for almost a week. She even wakes up dry from naps and overnight. This is just shocking to me. Shocking!! I do still feel like I live in the bathroom now, since I take her every 30 minutes. That’s all I do, sit in the bathroom with Daphne and clap for her bowel movements. They leave that info out for new moms. Someday you will have to stand next to the toilet, cheer and do the Dora “We Did It” dance more than a dozen times a day to encourage your little one to use the potty.
Daphne is in cloth training panties most of the day, with Pull-Ups for nap and nighttime. She hates the Pull-Ups and thinks her cotton panties are awesome. She also hates using public restrooms. In fact, she’s only used a public potty once when we were at the library. At our Wednesday morning mom’s group, I took her before we left the house, once we got to church and before we left. You’d have thought I was trying to torture her in the bathroom. So, she held it until we got home. I’m really surprised she didn’t have an accident.
Next week we are going to pick out a few big girl gifts, including Ni hao, Kai-Lan panties. Go Daphne! Woo hoo!
I like to think of myself as a fairly low maintenance Valentine. I hate fighting the crowds at restaurants on holidays, so no fancy dinner reservations necessary. I love flowers, but always tell my husband not to buy them on Valentine’s Day. They are usually overpriced and not in good condition anyway. Oh, and I’m not a big fan of roses. But as a girl who worked in corporate America for 11 years before Daphne, I’ll tell you there can be some pride and competition between women in the workplace for the best Valentine’s bouquet. Am I right?! Isn’t there always that one woman in the office who gets an arrangement so big that it takes up her entire desk. Then my “don’t buy me Valentine’s flowers” stance looks a little pathetic. Just me and maybe a few of the single ladies without flowers on our desks. But it didn’t bother me enough to have my husband buy them for me.
Valentine’s gifts are negotiable, depends on the year. The only part not negotiable? A card. I tell my husband he has to get me a card. Or make me a card. Or send me a frakking e-card. Something to signify “I thought of you today!” And you know what? Sometimes my husband still grumbles about getting me a card. Someone please tell him how easy he has it. My husband just thinks Valentine’s Day is a BS holiday and we shouldn’t play into the marketing machine. Really, just spend the $2.99 on a card. It won’t kill you.
(Cover your heart, Indy!)
But just because I’m a Valentine’s grump, doesn’t mean I don’t love hearing about other people’s plans. What do you have planned for this weekend?
A few years ago, I started to collect vintage jewelry, mainly enamel flower pins and earrings from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. I’m always on the lookout for a new piece. I just love retro. So, I wear some of the jewelry, want to incorporate a few of them into necklaces (Right after I take up jewelry making. I so don’t need another hobby.), and plan on putting the rest in a shadow box. I love them. Unfortunately, I misplaced them during our move. It killed me to watch Emma on Glee and see her amazing vintage jewelry collection (or as Sue Sylvester would say “creepy brooches like the kind my nana was buried in!” LOL!) and know that I wasn’t able to find mine. Luckily, we found them a few weeks ago while we were moving things in our storage unit. Aren’t they fun?
They make me smile! And something else that’s making me smile… my stationery from Pink Loves Brown.
I had a $25 gift certificate to spend and the second I laid eyes on the stationery with eyeglasses (!) it was all over. Now I just need a pen pal.
And then there’s this shoe. Don’t own them, yet… but at least they are definitely cheaper than the Fluevogs I’ve been lusting over. I need a colorful ballet flat for spring/summer.
Today was daddy/daughter Saturday. I love daddy/daughter days.
They set out for the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (love having a membership), with Daphne’s camera. Daddy got an opportunity to take one quick shot before Daphne took over:
Then it was her turn. They visited the sculpture garden:
Watched some Korean dancers perform. She thought this dancer was pretty and asked to take her picture:
I’m just shocked that it’s in focus, since the shutter lag is pretty annoying for indoor photos. Daphne never stands still for that long.
They went through the glow tunnel to get in between the main buildings. Love this shot. Very Tron:
And much like her father, got in trouble with the docent for taking pics of a traveling exhibit. Ooops!! I won’t post that one. Daphne also got to make a few Valentines paintings at the kid’s art area.
Then they stopped by a fire station to visit the trucks. Again, one of Daphne’s shots:
I really love looking at her images and am very happy she’s enjoying her camera.
All of a sudden whenever Daphne puts on a twirly dress she says, “Mommy, I’m a princess!!” Although we are not anti-princess, I don’t make it a point of encouraging it either. And I’ve never called her a princess. Funny how they just pick things up. Possibly from her princess-obsessed cousins.
Here’s the latest “princess” dress.
I needed a springy dress/top for Daphne ASAP for Spring Mini Session promotional stuff, so I opened up my fabric stash to see what I could whip up. I don’t think I should really call it a fabric stash anymore, just a scrap bag, since I only have a few pieces of yardage left. I pulled everything out to see what could possibly work together, and I had just enough to create this little peasant top from the Portobello Pixie Claire pattern. Just shortened the peasant dress and did a square apron instead of rounded. I think it’s cute. Very storybook. Like a cross between the princess dress, and the dress the princess wore before she found out she was a princess and was still mopping the floors. I wish I had some more trims or buttons or something to “Matilda Jane” it up, but this was a total stash buster and I didn’t want to purchase anything to get it finished.
Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate for outdoor pics. Princess Daphne was freezing. Maybe another day.
I’ve got a question for the moms out there. What does your child’s baby book look like? Did you get yours from Hallmark or Babies R Us? Maybe you created your own scrapbook? And I think I’ve asked this question before, so my apologies if you’ve already told me. I couldn’t find it in my archives.
I ask because I freaking hate Daphne’s baby book. I hate it, and I haven’t updated it. And I hate that I hate it and haven’t updated it. I always enjoyed looking through my baby book. It had cool early 70’s graphics:
The traditional naked baby on a blanket picture. Hey naked baby Jenny!
And without it, I wouldn’t know that my mom fed me green beans at 5 weeks old with my pediatrician’s blessing. Um, WHAT!?!?!?!
I bought Daphne’s baby book when I was roughly 24 or 25 weeks along. Gender neutral, since Daphne didn’t want to reveal her lady parts to the ultrasound tech until 28 weeks. I hate the standard format, with pages and lines that I will leave blank. Like the All About My Siblings page.
I want a custom book. With only the pictures and info that I choose. But here’s where it gets obnoxious (or more accurately, where I get obnoxious!)… I’m not a scrapbooker, certainly not with paper. I might be able to do digital, but I’m not thrilled with the idea of creating complicated layouts. I’ve considered using a photo book service, like Shutterfly or Photoworks, but I have yet to find a consumer photo book lab that comes back with decent color. My last Shutterfly freebie photo book looked terrible since they automatically “color correct” (and I didn’t see an option to turn it off). I would need to print it myself using one of our pro labs (WHCC or MpixPro), that way I would be completely sure of the finished color, since my monitor is calibrated to their specs.
My current plan is to either find a WHCC album template, or create my own using digital scrapbooking papers and elements. Then spend a small fortune getting it printed, but at least it would be a really quality piece. Then I’m going to have a custom image box (the boxes from MpixPro have a place in the lid for a CD) made, and fill it with every picture we like of Daphne from her first two years. And we’ll do a new box every 2 years or so. I like the idea of having the hard copy images, as well as a convenient place to store the digital files on CD, all in one.
Any other ideas I should consider? Do you have a favorite digital scrapbooking site? The only one I’m familiar with is Two Peas in a Bucket. Any pro photographer album resources? Oh how I wish I was rich enough to outsource this to an amazing graphic designer.
This project, and a twin quilt for Daphne’s big girl room are my major projects for 2010. So stayed tuned for my progress.
Blast from the Past
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